Why Do Students Choose Texting Instead of Face-to-face Communication?

If you have ever seen a millennial, you’ve seen their phone first. People talking to each other seems an oddity on the campus. Students nowadays are always on their phones, but never return the call. What’s up with them? Why do they text instead of a face to face conversation?

Well, there are several reasons. If you are interested, hop on, and discover why they do it from the millennial perspective.

Distancedoesn’texist

Smartphones made us androids. People are talking about the integration of computers into our brains, but smartphones are just that.

It is computing power and a memory cell that has a fast connection to our brains. We don’t even need to memorize much information when Google is within a couple of taps.

This technology makes distance disappear. You may be in different classes or on different continents with your friend, it doesn’t matter. You can text or FaceTime, despite how far away are you from them.

Surely, no one is against preferring text instead of talking face to face when your best buddy lives in Tokyo of all places.

Meetingnewpeopleissomucheasier

The smartphone obsessed population is mostly under 25. That’s the age where you want to meet a lot of new people. For romance, networking, and just for a fun conversation.

Before the smartphone, you could meet someone in a bar on a Friday night. Now, you can meet someone anytime. With Twitter, Instagram, and Tinder, meeting people for either of these aims has never been easier.

You can talk with five potential partners in the morning, sort out the bad ones, then find a like-minded guy in a Twitter discussion at lunch, and finish the day by joking around in a group chat in Discord.

Littletonoice–breakers

The worst thing about face to face interactions with new people is breaking the ice. You’re at a venue, and you want to talk to them, but it all just seems weird. What do you say? How do you smile? Would they even talk to you?

When you’re talking on the web, it’s much easier. The thing is we are afraid of social exclusion. Our brains deem a tiger poised to jump to be as scary as an audience that might laugh at you.

When you don’t see the emotional reactions to your ice-breaker, you don’t have the fear. Sure, it looks a bit cowardly, but it works.

Convenientwithmultitasking

We’re all multitaskers in this new world. You may be looking for the best colleges to attend in one source, looking for a summer job in the other, and chatting with a friend at the same time.

Sure, face to face conversations are important, but only with important people. Your good friends, your girlfriend, your business prospect – all these people need your personal attention.

Many others, however, are okay with being connected via the Internet. Writing is just more convenient. You don’t have to wait for weeks to have a short talk over a cup of coffee, you can do it anytime.

Youdon’ttakeuptime

Imagine this: you are in a traffic jam, on your phone texting with two clients who want to change something about the project. You’re forwarding their messages to the developers to know their estimated deadlines. You cut out a bit of time to tell your girlfriend you’re going to be home late.

And then someone calls you.

Your frustration gets to the limit. You can’t handle that much at once.

That’s how many millennials see phone calls. You don’t know what a person is doing in the given moment. They may be busy and frustrated. Millennials feel like that sometimes, and don’t want to force someone else to feel this way.

Phone calls are not polite in our rulebook. They are intrusive. Texting is polite. You can text someone, and they will respond if they have the time. Most millennials have the wifi and notification on during the day, so responding doesn’t take long.

Boredom

This is the number one reason why people are on their smartphones all the time. Millennials are endorphin junkies, gotta admit that.

Technically, we are all endorphin junkies, but millennials and the generations to follow are the most impacted ones. Social media, for instance, is designed in a way that we feel validated any time someone likes our post.

Messengers also contribute to helping boredom. You know the good feeling of chatting with your mates? With a smartphone, you can get that feeling anytime you want.

We’ve become a bit spoiled by the Internet, though. It takes just a little surge of boredom to grab your phone and start browsing every app you have to soothe it.

This point is where millennials are weak, and we have to overcome that. But other than that, texting has many positive sides. Or at least a side you can emphasize with.